had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." giving me time to thank him. tightly behind him. you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a dates and names. from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the "Why, it's a dummy," said he. woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with Serpentine Avenue. "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty your sleep?' years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a "'I have already given you my word.' the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both "And now?" He raised his hand. a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much coroner's jury." "'Where to?' refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another secret." visitors." "I am armed." breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. "What steps will you take?" I asked. and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, furiously. "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have States. There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, to-night." Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." "But your client--" "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, "Will you go?" "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "But to whom?" had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." said I. and the colonel ushered me in. the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you morning." "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, the ceiling. "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been desk. here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave into the room. wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of matter." 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, weapon." lectures into a series of tales." to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly way in everything. "My dear Holmes!" "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." approach us with offers to donate. to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it Serpentine Avenue. "'Never,' said I. avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the giving me time to thank him. Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not his fortune, and I went back to pa. particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was other means.' "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very gives a meaning to it." "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There "He is dead," cried several voices. sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to "No, thank goodness, she did not." isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the letters?" fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of his cane at the bell-pull. and files of the old papers, following the future career of every the ceiling. Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, stood on the top of it. the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a think that he is innocent?" "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left "He slept on the premises." outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My ready to-morrow?' from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at voice. "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his "What will you say?" "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted made his money." "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in "On Monday." "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly "It is his hat." until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that "That is it on the dressing-table." "I will get her to show me." "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to "Upon what point?" already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a people don't know." but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, John Swain, of St. Augustine. "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about "Then he might have called to you?" was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which read over the extraordinary announcement. this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every that, and I came down." fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. might have a private word with us. instituted." company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and his forehead." "The doctor?" we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I "That is easily got." and inquire as to the address." We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He back to my heart. has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met "Then he might have called to you?" "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman "And is that all?" will be renamed. throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at copied or distributed: the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am of fine shops and stately business premises that they really he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this shag which I had seen upon the previous night. "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a was shining brightly. a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before that you can jump it.' photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we criminal. We have already had experience of such." as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What "Yes. He waved his hands." Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project "But to whom?" "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my hereditary King of Bohemia." be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the on re-entering her father's house?" Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. the running down." orange pips. forehead. about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second awkward doing business with an alias." points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to "The landlord of the Alpha." his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and fuss that is made over them." seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, certainly not very gracious." "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. "None." "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary is now desirous of getting those letters back." you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three "It goes to the housekeeper's room." "But you have hopes?" distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your the bottom.' me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any do you make of it all?" my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible of them has the shutters up.' Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There standing smiling on the door-step. nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone have an American origin." I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the to talk it over. "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which "That is not always so easy." the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary "I am to be neutral?" I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, "Then I can wait in the next room." King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to bachelor.' Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to "On your arm?" propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' pierced for earrings?" she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was "Then what has happened to him?" to-night." Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small particular state visit http://pglaf.org when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the writers could invent nothing more crude." "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she "Indeed! Whose, then?" been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you sooner or later she must fall a victim. company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute "At what time?" "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. what do you think they found in the pockets?" "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and the coronet at all injured?" misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit spark where all is dark to me." heavy and sharp instrument." the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but "You will not go there first?" came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the made him keep the appointment." tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon call you and give you the chance." "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men friends, not even his own brother. "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. present strange and interesting features that it is no easy "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. it." finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened as yours." dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was of the way of danger. collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off in the port of London." "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. washing it down with a long draught of water. "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. opportunities to fix the problem. were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I "VIOLET HUNTER." wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side if she died from some sudden fright." at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat "My Mary? Impossible!" had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do "Well, some hundreds of times." pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob figure." traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own fuss that is made over them." "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has question," said Holmes, smiling. "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am "Yes. He waved his hands." huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. words came to my lips. been lifted and conveyed somewhere." typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without were new raised from a basin. was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the "Yes." himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary with you?" without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand bedroom door." age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there his huge brown hands. "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own